The appraiser explained appraised values had declined and I would be given a "quick sale" number (which was still 2X what I had paid for the house a decade earlier).The same type of appraisal inflation occurred during the real estate bubble of the 2000s leading up to the Financial Crisis of 2008 (The appraisal bubble: In run up to real estate bust, lenders pushed appraisers to inflate values).

It has now become common place for wholesalers to come in and offer 25 - 35 k over the asking price and then quickly turn around a double close where they get a +20k commission. 

They wanted to tie it up quickly and see if they could move it, they couldn't.  

If you haven't read this article, do so.https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/forget-br...Here's a quick recap on my situation:My property in Missouri is about rehabbed. 

@Jason Hsiao, @Dan Krupa, @Jody Schnurrenberger So it sounds like the thing that makes an agent valuable in your mind is an understanding of the analysis and doing some of that work up front so the investor can quickly see if the numbers work.

I am looking to scale to multi-family as quickly as possible so any multi-family stories are much appreciated. 

My main concern is that I don't have any construction background and I have never rehabbed a property before so I don't have any real world experience regarding the costs associated in doing so.Once I find a deal that looks promising on paper and I physically go walk the property with my realtor how am I supposed to determine a rehab estimate without any prior experience? 

You'll quickly make a ton of mistakes that can only be learned by experience.

If you consider that tenants are often in 1 year leases, it is often the case that rents cannot be increased as quickly as the appreciation.

If you do not want to sacrifice going outside of your desired area then maybe you can get 1.0-1.5% but you will have to be willing, ready and able to act very quickly when those deals come up because as you are probably experiencing they do not come available much the smaller the area you are looking.